State Fair Research

Stacie Bosley, professor of economics in the School of Business, alongside student researchers conducted an experiment during the Minnesota State Fair. In partnership with the University of Minnesota and funded by Hamline's Center for Justice and Law, Bosley and her team surveyed fairgoers in the Driven to Discover building on the state fair grounds.

In the study, participants were given cash and were presented with a choice: they could keep the money or invest it in the Airplane Game, a classic pyramid scheme. Participants answered a series of survey questions and watched videos that educated them on the warning signs of pyramid scheme fraud. Bosley's team will use this experimental data to identify risk factors associated with this form of consumer fraud. As the first economic experiment of its kind, results will be used to inform consumer protection efforts.